Where to Watch 'Gilbert': The Delicious Malaga Short Film That Won a Goya Award

It's just 13 minutes watched in one sitting. But behind 'Gilbert' there is much more: 17,000 frames of stop-motion and ... four years of work that culminated this weekend by winning the Goya Award for best animated short film. Along the way, it surpassed the Academy of Cinema's 'shortlist' of the year's 15 best titles, then the crucial moment of nominations (five finalists), and finally, the envelope opening, when Cayetana Guillén Cuervo said just one word. The right one: 'Gilbert'. And then came the euphoria. A Goya that, as of yesterday, is now in Málaga, at the Avenida Molière office of the production company Agencia Freak. The award-winning film is now available on platforms.

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The delightful plot that has captivated the academics stars Gilbert, the title character, a postman of a small archipelago in the middle of the ocean who delivers packages in his gondola. On one of the islets lives Sullivan, a musician eagerly awaiting a shipment, but Gilbert decides to keep his mail. This is the starting point of this inspiring short film based on the real story of a retired postal worker from Valencia who, upon his death, was found to have kept hundreds of undelivered letters at his home.

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Directors Jordi Jiménez, Arturo Lacal, and Alex Salu started from this real story to create their debut in fiction with an animated short film, which is a delicate, elegant, and endearing tale about friendship and the power of music. The film is accessible to viewers through the Filmin platform, where many of the national production shorts can be found, though it is also available to Movistar subscribers who premiered 'Gilbert' a month ago.

This production between Malaga and Catalonia is a "collaborative work where everyone contributes and there is the result," says the producer from Agencia Freak, Mónica Gallego, who highlights that the three directors, a teacher, a chef, and a video game programmer, met in a 'stop-motion' workshop for the unemployed and ended up signing one of the great Spanish short films of the last year. "They sent me the dossier because they needed to finance those 13 minutes and we saw that it was a very universal proposal that could also travel through screens around the world," Gallego recounts, who was inspired by this drive and also launched into the project. In fact, it is also her debut as a producer.

The success of 'Gilbert' at the Goya Awards is preceded by its selection in 65 festivals around the world and numerous awards at events in the USA, Brazil, Togo, and Spain. A trajectory that now gains new momentum with the coveted Academy of Cinema award.